Veganism: A change in habits and mindset
Not a single person on the face of the earth can survive a length longer than, at most, 21
days without food. Although nutrition remains so pertinent in everyday life, many people’s
eating habits severely lack insight into what exactly is healthy for ones body. In a 2014 survey by
Harris Interactive and the Humane Research Council they found that only 1.9 percent of
participants identified as either vegetarian or vegan. In recent years the Food and Drug
administration reports a raise in US vegetarian food sales by 1.6 billion dollars. Despite the
growing market, a large majority of the United States, including people at Samford University,
remain close minded to the benefits of vegan eating habits. Because of incorrect perceptions
being fed to people at a very young age, the disgusting meat industry is continuing to flourish,
people are not experiencing the healthiest versions of themselves, and they don’t realize how
easy a lifestyle like this can be. These are the sections in which I will not only explain where
everyones mindsets are construed, but also how those thoughts are affecting oneself and the
world around them.
From birth, people are raised to believe that eating animals is not only good for you, but
also necessary in maintaining the upmost health. However, these teachings go immediately
against human tendencies to treat all living animals with kindness. An example from the Animal
Rights Foundation of Florida have someone imagine a toddler sitting next to a baby chick and an
apple. This baby harbors no immense thought as to what each item is or what they are supposed
to do with it. So, as most toddlers do, they might try to stick each thing into their mouth in an
effort to try and deduce its purpose. If the child tried to chew on the baby chicken the animal
would most likely run away, or peck at the kid in an effort of self preservation, and the parent
would probably step in because chewing on a live chick is considered morally wrong. In a
similar way, if someone was to bring two items to a group of hungry people, one being
strawberries, and the other being a live piglet most people would clearly choose the fruit.
Ultimately, humans would choose to eat the apple or the strawberry instead of personally
slaughtering the chick or the pig. As stated by Tristram McPherson in his Journal of Moral
Philosophy, parents are feeding their children misconceptions that although they should love
some animals and they should eat another.
In the light of such misapprehension, traditions become molded into culture. We are the
only species on the planet to drink milk from another creature, and in general, drink it past
infancy. Although some people believe that they need the milk to grow tall and strong, there
remains to be no overarching benefit to drinking milk apart from your mothers. Why put a
product from a 2,000 pound animal into a human infant who is ten times smaller than the calf the
milk is meant for? In the first year of a calfs life they approximately gain four hundred pounds.
Tzachi Zamir, who hold a doctorate in philosophy, makes it clear that the milk people are
feeding to their loved ones essentially is a hormone and fat filled weight gainer meant for an
animal over ten times the size of a human. Unnatural practices such as these have become such a
social norm that children eat sugary cereal mixed with milk in the morning for breakfast, and
families serve a huge dead bird for their families every year on Thanksgiving. These practices
are not for the health benefits, they exist because the perceptions have transitioned from tradition
into culture.
In further examination of the meat industry, there persists sufficient evidence to suggest
that eating animals is unethical, unhealthy, and selfish. People are blind to the fact that animals
are capable of maternal thoughts along with feelings of pain. If this cruelty is not deterrent
enough, there are also extreme concentrations of contaminants in many meat sources wether a
person may think they are coming from an ethical source or not. The truth is, more food and land
wasted in the production of meat the less ailment there remains for the less fortunate in the
world.
Although some people assume that animals do not have the capacity to experience thought
or even pain, this mindset remains offensively uninformed. From the moment a cow is brought
into a dairy producing facility they must be used to ultimate money making potential and are
therefore artificially inseminated as Zamir explains. Only when pregnant can a female cow
